Civil Rights Groups File Brief in Support of Equal Pay Act Case Against VA Medical Center
WASHINGTON 鈥 The 老澳门开奖结果, the 老澳门开奖结果 of the District of Columbia, the 老澳门开奖结果 of Arkansas, and 23 women鈥檚 rights organizations have filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reconsider a legal ruling that makes it more difficult for women to fight unlawful sex-based pay disparities under the Equal Pay Act. The Federal Circuit is a federal appellate court in Washington, D.C., that can hear equal pay claims from the nation鈥檚 federal employees, close to half of whom are women.
鈥淭he Equal Pay Act says that women should win their case if they show unequal pay for equal work, unless the employer can prove that the pay disparity had a legitimate explanation,鈥 said Scott Michelman, Legal Co-Director, 老澳门开奖结果-DC. 鈥淓ven though that鈥檚 how the Equal Pay Act has defined discrimination for more than five decades, the appeals court wrongly ruled that plaintiffs have to show additional evidence of discrimination.鈥
The brief was filed in the case of Gayle Gordon and Teresa Maxwell, emergency room physicians at a VA hospital in Little Rock, Ark. Gordon and Maxwell accuse the VA of paying them less than several male doctors who perform similar work. Although the plaintiffs had shown unequal pay for equal work鈥攚hich should have meant they won unless the VA could prove the disparity was due to a legitimate reason鈥攁 three-judge panel of the appeal court ruled against them based on the court鈥檚 requirement that plaintiffs provide additional evidence of discrimination in addition to the pay disparity. Two weeks ago, the plaintiffs petitioned for all 12 judges of the appeals court to rehear their case and to eliminate that requirement.
Today鈥檚 friend-of-the-court brief in Gordon v. United States supports Gordon鈥檚 and Maxwell鈥檚 request for their case to be reconsidered. The civil rights groups assert that the additional requirement that the women show 鈥渄iscrimination鈥 in addition to a pay disparity is a misreading of the Equal Pay Act.
鈥淔ifty-five years after Congress outlawed unequal pay for equal work, the gender pay gap persists. It鈥檚 hard enough for women to fight this inequality without having to prove something that neither Congress nor the Supreme Court requires them to prove,鈥 said Lenora Lapidus, Director of the 老澳门开奖结果 Women鈥檚 Rights Project.
鈥淲omen in Arkansas are still paid just 79 cents for every dollar earned by men 鈥 a wider pay gap than most other states,鈥 said Rita Sklar, executive director of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Arkansas. 鈥淭he Equal Pay Act makes clear that paying women less than men for the same work is discrimination. We are hopeful that the Federal Circuit will review this decision and find that women should not face additional hurdles to be paid equally for equal work.鈥
The brief is available here: